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Family

US: Mother gets 7 days in jail for baptizing daughter after custody dispute


Fox News
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 12:00 UTC
Baptism
File photo.
A Charlotte mother has been sentenced to seven days in jail for having her daughter baptized, according to WSOC.

The court case goes back a couple of years to when Kendra Stocks and Paul Schaaf were in a custody battle over their daughter. Court documents say the two could never agree on religion.

According to court records, Schaaf is a practicing Catholic who attends Mass every week, and that ultimately the court granted him final decision-making authority on all legal custody decisions, including decisions concerning religion.

Comment: As seems to be typical of many marriages nowadays, the children are the ones who suffer the disputes of the parents. Whether the mother should have been jailed is questionable:

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Caesar

Jordan Peterson's intellectual complexity makes journalistic incompetence all the more obvious

Paul Benedetti
Quillette
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
Jordan Peterson
It was while I was watching Channel 4 news presenter Cathy Newman's spectacularly disastrous interview with University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson that what was wrong with much of journalism today crystallized in my brain.

I'd been oscillating between anger and frustration watching Canadian media fail again and again - and often in jaw-dropping fashion - in reporting on Peterson and I couldn't quite establish what was going wrong.

Peterson is the teacher and clinical psychologist who burst onto the scene after making a video decrying the government's Bill C-16 which compelled the use of invented gender pronouns (ze and zir, etc) for non-binary and transgender people. Peterson connected the "compelled speech" of the legislation (and the unscientific instantiation of gender as a non-biologically-correlated social construct) to radical leftist ideology and authoritarian governments.

In an admittedly complex and controversial argument, Peterson blamed the spread of postmodernism within the academy for the rise of both identity politics and the emergence of the illiberal left. Many of the stories about him were shallow or missed the point, but several in respected publications like the Globe and Mail and Maclean's by Tabatha Southey, Ira Wells and most recently by John Semley, were just hatchet jobs, replete with insults, inaccuracies and what appeared to be deliberate misrepresentations. In short, bad journalism you would not expect in good outlets.

Comment: See also: Jordan Peterson's Vice News Interview: Another Cathy Newman Moment

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Pistol

Brennan: 'Congress must ban semiautomatic weapons'


RT
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 17:23 UTC
Brennan
© The Counter Jihad ReportFormer CIA director John Brennan
In the aftermath of the Florida school shooting this week that left 17 people dead, John Brennan echoed the concerns of law enforcement officials who have spoken out against assault weapons on the streets of America.

On Thursday, ex-CIA Director Brennan weighed in on the gun debate by calling on Congress to revamp gun laws following the deadly mass shooting at a South Florida high school, located less than an hour's drive from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.

"Having worked international counterterrorism for much of my career, it is imperative that we devote equal energy and effort to addressing the scourge of gun violence in our country," Brennan commented in a tweet Thursday. "Congress needs to act now to prevent access to semiautomatic weapons that kill innocents."

Since the expiration of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban in 2004, US citizens have been entitled to purchase semiautomatic weapons (defined as assault weapons that fire a single bullet with each squeeze of the trigger), and magazines that carry no more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

Comment: The Rights of the People outweigh the wrongs of the few.

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Binoculars

Belgian court orders Facebook to stop collecting and delete all data on citizens, or face fines of up to $125mn


RT
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 21:26 UTC
Facebook
© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
A Belgian court has ordered Facebook to stop collecting data about the country's citizens, and to delete information previously gathered. It threatened to fine the social network €250,000 a day if it fails to comply.

In its ruling, the court determined that Facebook does not adequately inform users that it is collecting information. "Facebook informs us insufficiently about gathering information about us, the kind of data it collects, what it does with that data and how long it stores it," the court said, determining the social network had broken privacy laws. "It also does not gain our consent to collect and store all this information."
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Handcuffs

British man arrested on terrorism charges for fighting with YPG against ISIS in Syria


RT
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 21:30 UTC
Aidan James
© Aidan James/ Facebook
A British man will be charged with terrorism offences for fighting against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists in Syria.

Merseyside man Aidan James was arrested at Liverpool Airport after returning to the country on February 14. The 27-year-old from Formby is being charged with one count of the preparation of acts of terrorism and two counts of attendance at a place used for terrorist training.

James will be charged for fighting with Kurdish forces in Syria, which the Home Office deems it a possible breach of UK terrorism laws. The Merseyside man is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court later.
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Star of David

Jewish settlers attempt to break into Palestinian kindergarten as part of routine harassment designed to incite punishment from IDF


Mondoweiss
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
israeli settler harassment
© Human Rights DefendersIsraeli soldier confronting Sharbati family on roof of house in Hebron, before seizing construction tools.
We received the following two videos and report from Human Rights Defenders and Badia Dwaik yesterday -Editor.
On Saturday morning [February 10], a group of settlers led by the notorious Anat Cohen gathered by the door to the kindergarten of a Palestinian school in Hebron and attempted to break into the building. The school is closed on Saturdays.

Badee Dwaik, leader of the group Human Rights Defenders and the photographer that documented the disturbance, said that at least one of the settlers chanted in Arabic to the locals that had gathered "you are godless atheists and we are the true believers (the chosen people)." In Arabic the words are "Enta Kuulum Kaffari" (you are godless atheists) and "Nanhno Al-Mmominin" (we are believers).

Comment: These are but a few examples of the despicable treatment continuously inflicted on Palestinians by the Israelis who continually thumb their noses at international law.

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Brick Wall

Israel installs concrete checkpoints at Jerusalem's Old City gate in effort to push out Palestinians

Mustafa Abu Sneineh
Middle East Eye
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 14:52 UTC
Palestinians carry national flags
© AFPPalestinians carry national flags during a Land Day protest at Damascus Gate in March 2015
The new checkpoints at Damascus Gate are an Israeli attempt to take full control of Jerusalem, say residents

Israel is installing permanent checkpoints at a key entrance to Jerusalem's Old City in order to keep Palestinians with already limited access out, residents tell Middle East Eye.

Construction at the Damascus Gate area - one of the most popular entrances used by Palestinians - started weeks after US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Palestinians living in Jerusalem say the new checkpoints aim to create "facts on the ground" to change Jerusalem's current status quo as an occupied city.

Mahdi Abdul Hadi, the head of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA) based in Jerusalem, said: "The checkpoints at Damascus Gate are aimed at paralyzing any Palestinian social, religious and youthful movements in this site.
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Einstein

Baltimore's police are so corrupt that lawmaker proposes to disband and reorganize entire department

John Vibes
Free Thought Project
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
cops fired
Baltimore cops have proven to be so corrupt and criminal that even lawmakers are kicking around the idea that firing every single cop is a plausible solution.

After a recent corruption trial exposed just how bad things were at the Baltimore City Police Department, Maryland state delegate Bilal Ali suggested that the whole department should be "disbanded and reorganized from the ground up."

In a proposal that he made this week to Mayor Catherine Pugh and Commissioner-Designate Darryl De Sousa, Ali pointed to the example of Camden, who disbanded their police department just a few years ago.

"In 2013 Camden [New Jersey] disbanded its police department in response to record-breaking levels of violence and an extremely inefficient police budget. Four years later, Camden hit its lowest homicide rate in 30-years," Ali said.

Meanwhile, this past year the city of Baltimore saw its worst ever homicide rate, with a total of 342 killings.

Comment: Ali seems to have the right idea here and there's been a successful precedent for starting fresh as the article describes.

The levels of police corruption in Baltimore are hellacious:

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Bomb

New York high school teacher & twin brother charged with bomb-making and distribution of explosives to a minor


RT
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 05:03 UTC
New York Police Department (NYPD) officers in Bronx
© Eduardo Munoz / ReutersNew York Police Department (NYPD) officers in Bronx
A teacher at an Upper Manhattan high school and his twin brother have been arrested on suspicion of running a bomb factory in their Bronx apartment. Police recovered some 30 pounds of precursors and a bomb-making manual.

Christian Toro, a teacher at a charter school in Manhattan, allegedly enlisted his students' help to manufacture explosives. Christian, along with his twin brother Tyler Toro, also devised a way to get rid of the incriminating evidence, the former's confiscated diary indicates.

At a press conference on Thursday, NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill revealed that the arrests were a result of a two-month long investigation into a bomb scare at the school on December 4. Police initially traced the threat to a 15-year-old student, who was then arrested. At that point, neither of the Toro brothers were implicated in the investigation. It was only when Christian abruptly resigned on January, 10, that he got on the law enforcement's radar. A school laptop his brother returned two days later became the key to uncovering a larger plot involving both twins. A technical staffer accidentally discovered what appeared to be a bomb-making manual on the laptop and alerted the police.

Comment: Perhaps in the next article on this story we'll read about how the FBI surreptitiously encouraged these two to pursue bomb-making...

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Attention

Will schools ban best friends?

Maggie Parker
Yahoo News
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 21:00 UTC
best friends
© GettyI hope those smiles aren't exclusive between the two of you. Please distribute those smiles equally among the class.
Students may soon have to say goodbye to their best friend, and they have Prince George to blame.

We can't help but wonder ... does this mean George doesn't have someone he can call a best friend? Boy, would he be missing out." The concept was introduced when the royal tot first started school a few years ago. Ben Thomas, headmaster of St. Thomas's Day School, said at the time, "I would certainly endorse a policy which says we should have lots of good friends, not a best friend," according to the Telegraph. We can't help but wonder ... does this mean George doesn't have someone he can call a best friend? Boy, would he be missing out.

In the last few months, the trend has moved from Europe to America, according to Barbara Greenberg, a clinical psychologist specializing in family and relationship issues. Why would schools do such a thing? "They want to foster inclusivity," Greenberg tells Yahoo Lifestyle. "And they want their schools to be characterized as having children that don't exclude other ones. So what they did was take an extreme stance, which was to ban the whole concept of best friends in the hope that children would then form a group of friends."

Comment: Ridiculous. It's natural for people to form closer, more intimate relations with the people they like best. Watered down, meaningless relationships with scores of people are unfulfilling.

Leave Them Kids Alone! Micromanaging Kids to Death by Banning Best Friends

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